Situation

Birchwood needed an efficient way to update landscapers about its flexible
retail store hours. The company wanted to improve its communications network to
handle its growing business, including increasing store transactions. Buried in
paperwork, Birchwood needed to automate its invoicing and payroll processes and
eliminate revenue-impacting errors.

Solution

Using the AT&T
Messaging Toolkit, Birchwood updates landscapers about store hours,
equipment sales and new products. Approximately 80 percent of customers have
signed up for the new messaging service and appreciate getting the latest news.
AT&T IP Flexible Reach® (SIP Trunking) and AT&T
Managed Internet Service (MIS) give Birchwood the reliable, adaptable
bandwidth needed for its stores’ increasing point-of-sale transactions. The
AT&T VoIP Network routes customer calls to mobile workers’ cell phones for
immediate service. AT&T Business Messaging helps Birchwood alert
supervisors and workers when snow is imminent. Birchwood uses AT&T
Fleet Center to track and help protect its equipment in the field, leading
to reduced insurance costs. Using the solution’s location tracking reports, the
company is able to validate job completion and speed up invoice and payroll
processing.

Open for Business

Birchwood Snow and Landscape Contractors is a full-service property
management company with some of the largest and well-known companies as its
customers. A major force in its region, Birchwood’s 400 employees serve
commercial and industrial businesses in a six-state region.

We were losing about $100,000 each
year in missed billing – revenue that we have recovered, thanks to the AT&T
Fleet Center mobile application.”

“My Dad started Birchwood back in 1975 as a landscape company,” said Joe
Kassander, Vice President. “Over the years, the company has grown and evolved
to provide pretty much all services that help our customers maintain their
buildings and properties.”

In 2009, Birchwood even opened its doors to other landscapers. Called
Birchwood Landscaping Equipment, this retail division sells landscaping
equipment and supplies to thousands of mid-sized and small landscaping
businesses. “During the economic downturn, the market was flooded with a lot of
new landscapers,” explained Kassander. “To stay competitive and profitable, we
decided to work with these new entrants by becoming a retailer. It turned out
to be a great business decision.”

With two stores in place and a third one on the way, Birchwood Landscaping
Equipment now sells to more than 3,000 landscapers, especially during hard
winter months. “In this part of the country, winters are extreme and
unpredictable,” said Kassander. “We could get six inches of snow one day, and
it might be 60 degrees the next day.”

During the snowy season, keeping its retail stores open for business around
the clock is not unusual for Birchwood. “It’s important that we have AT&T
to keep our customers informed and respond to their calls,” he added.

Responsiveness is Everything

Before going with AT&T, Birchwood used a wide range of communications
vendors to support the business, but found them to be unresponsive. “In this
business where responsiveness is everything, we needed to work with a company
that was just as responsive to us as we were to our customers,” said Kassander.
“We also needed a more flexible, reliable network for our growing retail
business.”

Dan McCarthy, Director of Marketing, concurred. “Throughout the winter, our
stores might be open long hours for landscapers needing supplies. Yet with our
employees working so many hours already, we may decide to close the stores for
just a few hours to give them a break – say from 5:00 p.m. to midnight. I
needed a way to alert customers about our changing store hours. We gave out our
cell phone numbers and asked them to check in first, but this wasn’t a good
solution. If a landscaper drove to a store and it was closed, we would surely
lose that customer.”

Kassander also wanted to streamline Birchwood’s processes. “In any given
snowstorm, I would get a stack of paperwork from our drivers about a foot high
that we would sort through for billing customers,” explained Kassander. “Our
drivers work a lot of hours for long periods of time and doing paperwork is not
necessarily a priority. Yet, for me and our customers, paperwork has to be a
priority for accurate invoices.”

Kassander called on AT&T for a recommendation. “The AT&T team not
only helped us with our network, they also included what we needed to track our
assets and better communicate with our landscapers,” said Kassander. “They even
researched and suggested a new phone system, something that we really needed.
Now we get one bill and deal with one responsive company – AT&T.”

Keeping Customers Informed

When landscapers visit Birchwood’s stores, they now get an opportunity to
sign up for the company’s new messaging service. Made possible by the AT&T
Messaging Toolkit, the service provides Birchwood customers with up-to-date
text messages about store hours.

During Birchwood’s annual Open House, more than 2,000 of the 3,000 attendees
opted to sign up for the service. Since then, more have joined as McCarthy
promotes the value of being on the AT&T text-messaging list.

“We have offered the messaging service to customers and about 80 percent of
them have opted in,” said McCarthy. “They really appreciate the alerts about
store hours. It also helps us secure our relationships with them.”

McCarthy has found other helpful ways to use the AT&T Messaging Toolkit.
He alerts landscapers when a big sale is pending or a new product is available.
“When I have a piece of equipment that I know is a ‘hot item,’ I send a photo
and description to groups of customers that I know will be interested,” said
McCarthy. “We can more quickly sell it, and we help our customers who might be
searching for much-needed equipment. With the AT&T Messaging Toolkit, I can
create different groups and target my messaging – with text, voice and even
video.”

Likewise when Birchwood stores introduce a new product, McCarthy easily
promotes its availability. “Last month alone, we added two new vendors and
their products,” explained McCarthy. “In the past, it was hard to get the word
out; now it’s very quick and easy with the AT&T Messaging Toolkit.”

McCarthy once mailed at least 2,000 mailers each month to communicate the
same information now instantaneously communicated with text messages. As a
result, he estimated a $10,000 annual savings in postage expense alone. “And
our text messages are more effective than direct mail since we know they are
delivered and read by customers,” added McCarthy. “It has saved me time to
accomplish things I couldn’t seem to find the time to do before.”

Answering Customer Calls

Birchwood is equally proactive when it comes to keeping its commercial
customers informed about snow removal and its workers productive. When snow
flurries fly, AT&T Business Messaging is used to text supervisors who then
coordinate with their crews.

“Before, we would text or call each individual supervisor,” said Kassander.
“If he didn’t answer, we left a voice-mail message to call back, which always
took some time.” Birchwood now uses Business Messaging to communicate pertinent
information to all supervisors and dispatch workers to customer sites, saving
significant time.

“Even though we are very proactive when it comes to snow removal, some of
our customers still like to call us to just check in,” continued Kassander. “We
used to hand out our supervisors’ cell phone numbers to answer those calls. Or
if customers called our main number, they might get voice mail. I never felt
this was a very professional way to handle these valuable customers.”

“Employees can answer customer calls from their homes versus being in the
office at all hours,” explained Kassander. “It’s like having a mobile call
center without the investment of staffing a facility. It controls our labor and
utility costs and keeps our employees happy as well.”

Handling Point-of-Sale Transactions

AT&T IP Flexible Reach and AT&T MIS also provide Birchwood with the
reliable network backbone for its growing and busy business. The combination
delivers integrated, IP voice and data service to two Birchwood sites: its main
location with stores as well as a warehouse.

“With the addition of our retail stores and their increasing point-of-sale
transactions, not having an accessible and reliable network had become an
issue,” said Kassander. “With AT&T VoIP services, we now have efficient and
dynamic bandwidth for our data and voice needs.”

For Birchwood’s mobile workers, the AT&T Wireless Network provides
reliable connections throughout the region. “Our previous wireless network
dropped calls all the time,” said Kassander. “In our business, poor connections
add up to poor customer relations. It was also a matter of safety for our
workers. In the middle of a snowstorm, my guys in the field needed the
assurance of knowing they could make a call and get through.”

The AT&T
Smart Business Suite also provides Birchwood with one AT&T contract for
one price and one bill. It bundles AT&T VoIP and wireless
services along with around-the-clock AT&T technical support. “I knew
AT&T would have the right technology for our needs, yet I was very pleased
that they also had the right business arrangement for our company. They helped
us transition from multiple vendors and services to a better, simplified
solution,” said Kassander.

Keeping Track of Vehicles and Assets

Birchwood workers use all types of equipment – loaders, tractors and trucks
with plows – to help them move snow or earth. Unlike cars and trucks, equipment
like skid loaders and wheel loaders do not have titles – paperwork is rarely
exchanged when bought and sold. “It’s relatively easy for someone to pull up
and just take a piece of equipment,” explained Kassander.

Landscaping equipment can be pricey to replace; a skid loader could cost as
much as $50,000 and a wheel loader could be $150,000. Insurance rates can also
run high. “With AT&T Fleet Center, we can now monitor the whereabouts of
our 144 pieces of equipment,” said Kassander. “As a result, we haven’t had a
single theft and our insurance costs have dropped by about 20 percent.”

Kassander also uses the AT&T Fleet Center mobile
application to help speed the company’s invoicing process. A small GPS
tracking device is attached to each piece of equipment, allowing the company to
easily monitor jobs on the portal. “With the reports, I have a historical
record of where each piece of equipment was located, when it arrived and when
it departed,” said Kassander. “I no longer need to go through the pile of
paperwork to invoice our customers or complete my payroll.”

Birchwood’s billing cycle has been cut in half, improving cash flow. “Before
AT&T Fleet Center, we invoiced our customers every 30 days. Now we bill
every 15 days – a huge boost to our cash flow,” said Kassander.

It has also eliminated mistakes that translate into lost company revenue.
“We were losing about $100,000 each year in missed billing – revenue that we
have recovered, thanks to the AT&T Fleet Center mobile application.”

Now Kassander resolves any customer billing disputes and inquiries by
pulling up reports and showing the customer the exact time the driver arrived,
when the piece of equipment was powered up, and more. “It helps us keep
customer relationships strong,” said Kassander.

Both Kassander and McCarthy have found that improvements in Birchwood’s
business operations have made all the communications changes “worth it.”

“We are already experiencing some major benefits from our AT&T Mobility
Solutions,” said Kassander. “We wanted to take the complexity out of our
business by taking a one-stop-shop approach to our communications
infrastructure and network. AT&T is helping us stay at the top of our
game.”